Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	630
Proposal	Approval of GPUS 2012 Budget
Presenter	Steering Committee
Floor Manager	Susan Chunco
Phase	Closed - Adopted
Discussion	11-22-2011 - 12-04-2011
Voting	12-05-2011 - 12-11-2011
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Consens Quorum	A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

The 2012 GPUS Budget occurs amidst the third year of a deep national and international financial crisis that has made it challenging for non-profit organizations and independent political parties like the GPUS that survive on donations and fundraising. This follows the Green Party's own difficult period when it suffered the blowback of being blamed for the Bush presidency. As the nation comes to see the GPUS as providing answers for many of the dilemmas we face, we will gain more and more support.

The 2011 GPUS Budget was designed to lower the party's debt by minimizing expenses while still meeting basic party operating needs, partly by not funding certain staff and contractor positions. Having nearly eliminated the party debt in 2011, the 2012 approach emphasizes increasing party fundraising capabilities through a budget that includes various strategic priorities which have been unfunded in recent years and that include substantially increased funding for electoral politics.

This budget is not an authorization to hire and spend. It is merely a goal setting document that states what we intend to do if we raise sufficient funds to carry out those plans. In 2011 we rebuilt our fundraising infrastructure and hired a fundraiser. In 2012 we expect to see the benefit of that investment begin to pay off. We have completed the migration of our donor database to the DIA/Salsa platform, thereby significantly increasing our access to, and the usefulness of, donor information.

In 2011 we made a few changes in how the budget is formatted; this will continue in nearly the same format for 2012. First, the staff positions are presented as before in the functional categories where their associated costs are grouped, but this year the payroll taxes and health benefits are also tracked along with the gross pay instead of being lumped together. This makes it easier to assess the true cost of a position. Then, the fundraising costs are presented directly after the revenue section. This is a better way to match revenue with the cost of producing that revenue. The net funds provided for operations of the GPUS are presented as a line item followed by the percentage calculation of total revenue available for operations. Lastly, possible future year’s budgets are presented to show how funds might be allocated to more political and outreach work when fundraising grows to meet those projections.

The Foundation Is Built – It Is Now Up To You

Sometimes the claim to being in a transitional period is either a cliché or, worse, an apology for a difficult moment without doing anything about it. In this case, the term means neither of the above. What the Green Party of the United States has done in 2011 is truly transitional in that it built a foundation for growth that was nothing less than historic.

In the year 2011, the Green Party brought a revived Fundraising Committee up to a fully functioning level of performance. We hired a new fundraiser, David Sacks, who, on top of fundraising, is doing a marvelous job of rationalizing a number of data sources and placing them into the Democracy In Action/Salsa donor database. This upgrades our ability to raise money more efficiently and more effectively. Additionally, in the year 2011 the Green Party moved its national office to a far more accessible, pleasing, and green location, as well as changed its PO Box mailing address to Washington’s centrally located Union Station. Finally, the Fundraising Committee was able to take the initial steps towards fruitful linkages to our state parties and caucuses, which will inevitably lead to the kinds of fundraising and campaign support activities that will greatly benefit all levels of the party.

The following fundraising revenue and expense narratives describe where we, as a vital and increasingly influential party, can continue to build on what we have done so far. But it is more than a narrative. It is a challenge, a highly personal, direct challenge, not to state parties, nor caucuses, nor committees in some aggregative embodiment. It is a challenge to you, the members of The Green Party of the United States, to fill in the final blank in our restructured and revived party. If you do not participate, with your labor and with your resources, then none of the above is going to mean anything. This is the moment in American history wherein the two mindless dinosaurs that are the Republican and Democratic parties have so harmed our country, so crippled our citizenry with everything from their coziness to the banks to their compulsive attraction to wars, that we now possess our grandest opportunity to break through and become a national political force. And so, to the chase: below is the GPUS fundraising revenue and expense proposal for the year 2012.

Breakdown By Budget Category Comparing 2011 and 2012

See chart at:
http://gp.org/documents/budget/2012/chart.gif

BUDGET DOCUMENTS

The GPUS 2012 BUDGET OPERATING EXPENSE NARRATIVE and the
FUNDRAISING REVENUE AND EXPENSE NARRATIVE are available at:
http://gp.org/documents/budget/2012/

Proposal

The GNC hereby approves the 2012 Budget.

The proposed 2012 Budget spreadsheet is at:
http://gp.org/documents/budget/2012/2012-Budget-Proposal-ReadOnly.xls

Resources

Personnel and funds to carry out the budget priorities.

References

CONTACTS:
Susan Chunco ukapole@att.net
Jeff Turner jeff@gp.org

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